made in Japan
This wooden abacus, also known as a sorobon, was made in Japan in the 19th century. It is unsigned.
The abacus is divided into two sections. The upper section contains two beads, representing five, while lower section contains five beads, each representing one. Each row represents a digit. This example has 21 rows.
Western Europe became aware of the bead and wire abacus in the 17th century when examples from Russia, Japan and China were brought home as curios by travellers. Older people in these countries still use the abacus for basic computation.
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